David Bowers takes on ‘Astro Boy’

Director replaces Brady on CG-animated film

“Flushed Away” helmer David Bowers has been tapped to direct CG-animated pic “Astro Boy.” He replaces Colin Brady, who was previously announced as helmer of the $50 million project.

Imagi Studios, the Hong Kong- and L.A.-based outfit that last year delivered “TMNT,” is producing the pic, which will be released in 2009 by Warner Bros. Pictures and the Weinstein Co.

The lonely robot tale is an adaptation of a comicbook story created by manga supremo Osamu Tezuka and turned into a TV series in the early 1960s.

Bowers started as an animator on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” at British studio Cosgrove Hall before joining Steven Spielberg’s Amblimation in London. His credits include “The Prince of Egypt,” “The Road to El Dorado,” “Chicken Run,” “Shark Tale” and “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.”